For the past three months, Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly has been working on a mining mandate meant to fix some of the worst aspects of the discredited mining law, which did little besides legalize the trafficking of mining concessions, leaving the country without any real benefits. Yesterday, the Assembly finally issued the final text of the Mandate which will be debated and likely approved by the end of this week.

The Mandate will revoke all mining concessions that, among other things:a) Have not invested in exploration activities to March 31 2007b) Have not presented, nor have their environmental impact study approvedc) Number more than three concessions per company or individuald) Threaten water resources or are found within or inside protected areas

STOP WORK ORDER.In addition the mandate puts and end to all activities within all large and medium scale metallic mining projects not affected by the previous limitations until a new mining law is enacted- which should come about not later than five months after the new constitution comes into effect.

FREEZE ON NEW CONCESSIONSThe mandate also orders a moratorium on the issuance of new mining concessions until the new mining law is enacted (this is a process that could take about a year)

Finally, the mandate calls for the creation of a state-owned mining company- which is wreaking havoc on the nerves of most mining companies

The effects of the mandate, once approved, will revoke more than 90% of the country’s concessions- and possibly 100% of those not in the exploitation phase.

The nature of the Constitutional Assembly makes it illegal for any of its decisions to be overturned.

For Ascendant Copper’s Junin project, it means the end, since the company has notinvested in exploratory activities (according to Ecuadorian law), nor does it have their environmental impact study approved. In addition, the project heavily threatens water resources, and is within a protected area’s buffer zone.

The measure has been described by Ecuador’s mining chamber as a confiscation.

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DECOIN’S Work

An Update of Current Work
DECOIN was founded in January 1995 as a grass-roots environmental organization to find ways to conserve the unique biodiversity in the Intag area of northwestern Ecuador. The area is part of two of the world's most important biotic regions, the Tropical Andes, and the Chocó-Darien Western-Ecuadorian Biological Hotpots. The area of influence of our work encompasses several life zones, including tropical rain forests, and cloud forests. More...

About DECOIN

Every year, Ecuador loses another 2.3 percent of its forests - it has the highest deforestation rate in South America. In an effort to reverse the trend with local and regional eco-activism, the grass-roots organization DECOIN was founded in January of 1995.

DECOIN (Organizacion para la Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag) is a regional organization created to battle perhaps the greatest threat to the forests: the mining companies that have thousands of acres of government-granted concessions throughout the Intag.